Another great victory for the Steelers on the Titans home Turf

The Pittsburgh Sports Buzz tonight revolves around the happenings in Tennessee. The game got off to an unusual start for the Steelers. Something happened that Steelers fans have not been accustomed to, a kickoff return for a touchdown. Mewelde Moore received the kickoff and Antonion Brown doubled back to receive a handoff. Brown ran around the kick coverage team and burnt past the last line of uh-defense, the kicker, and it was off to the races. We’ll even forgive the little showboating, while crossing the goal line. The last Steeler to attempt that was Anthony Smith and he received a severe tongue lashing from Dick Lebeau afterwards. Something tells me Hines Ward might have a word of advice for Mr. Brown. That return turned out to be the only TD for the Steelers, but not the only score.

In the pregame article, “5 things the Steelers must do to beat the Titans”, the Steelers succeeded in holding Chris Brown under 100 yards, way under. Early in the game Brown looked as if he would continue his string of 100 yard games, picking up several yards each play. But, the Steeler defense had other ideas. On several occasions during the game Brown was met with force. On one attempt Brown attempted to cut back only to hit the brick wall also known as James Harrison. He was hit hard time after time and the camera caught him a couple times trying to shake free the cobwebs. It would not be a surprise if we find out that he suffered a concussion during the game.

Another key to the game was to keep Vince Young in the pocket. This turned out to be prophetic, for Vince did remain in the pocket most of the day and was unsuccessful in providing any spark for the Titans. The one drive that looked as if it would lead to a score, Troy Polamalu intercepted a Young pass in the end zone. Throw in another Young interception by LaMarr Woodley and some fumbles and Young was replaced early in the 4th quarter in favor of Kerry Collins. Collins made his share of mistakes with a Bryant McFadden interception and a forced fumble but at the end all he did was make the last few minutes interesting, but he was not the difference.

The third key to the game was the Steelers backups must step up. Looks like defense didn’t miss a beat with Chris Hoke starting in the middle. Larry Foote stepped in for James Farrior after he was shaken up. Jonathan Scott did not provide the protection of Max Starks, which led to the Steelers relying on the running game and Rashard Mendenhall for much of the second half. This might have annoyed the Steeler faithful, but getting your last quarterback injured would not have been a good idea. The Titans offense wasn’t moving the ball against the Steelers defense, so why not run the ball and the clock. Not to mention the Titans were very generous today, and could not resist giving the ball back to the Steelers.

Key number 4 was consistency from Rashard Mendenhall. Mendenhall did not have that 50 yard run today, but he did have one 20 yarder and he was held to 69 yards on 23 carries. Once again, the defense expected the run with Dennis Dixon at QB. The Titans stacked the line and really 69 yards was not bad under the circumstances. The Steelers barely threw in the second half, preferring to hand off to Mendenhall to eat up the clock.

Key number 5 was the continued development of Dennis Dixon. This went out the door early in the second quarter when Dixon injured a knee on a rollout to the left. Charlie Batch came in to replace him and did a great job of handing off to Rashard.